American Association Insider: Thursday July 23 Takeaways

 Kevin Luckow

(non member of IBWAA)

I thought this was going to be a color by numbers and hope I get the story right by reading the boxscore kind of night. I was in Rochester for a Northwoods League game. Likely the last ever game I attend at Mayo Field, as the Rochester Honkers ended their lease and will go dormant till when or if a stadium is built in Rochester. There will be no pro or college Summer League baseball in Rochester for the first time since 1992 next Summer. American Association, do not touch this market with a ten foot pole. More of this in the Sunday Insider. As I was listening to the Explorers postgame interview with Steve Montgomery, I knew the blog will have some spice added to it. 

Winnipeg 11 Sioux Falls 3

It had to end some time for the Canaries. After rattling off five straight wins to begin the homestand, an 11 run attack by Winnipeg and seven strong innings from Luke Boyd put an end to it. Keyshawn Lynch had a huge night at the plate for the Goldeyes going 5-6 with a double and four runs batted in. Roby Enriquez had a home run, three hits and three runs batted in from the nine spot in the Winnipeg lineup. 

Kane County 8 Chicago 2

Konnor Ash once again received eight runs of support, going seven innings allowing two runs on seven hits to get his third win in a row (four if for some reason you'd include the All Star Game). Sam Dexter and Zane Spinn batting eighth and ninth in the Cougars lineup each drove in three runs. The Cougars will need production from throughout the lineup to try to pick up the slack as Claudio Finol is expected to be out for an extended time with an injury. George, if you're reading this, it may be time to find the second coming of Lou Lucca (2004 Saints represent!!). Workhorse Logan Nissen racked up his third scoreless inning in the last four days. I don't remember how many innings it is but Nissen has a long scoreless streak against the Dogs. 

Milwaukee 5 Lake Country 1

Edinson Batista threw six shutout innings, outdueling Marc Davis (three runs in seven innings) as the Milkmen salvaged the series finale against their crosstown rivals. A Chase Waddell two run home run was part of a three run second inning that put the Milkmen in front for good. Lake Country outhit the Milkmen 6-5 as it was a night for the pitchers. 

Lincoln 3 Sioux City 0

Jacob Hughes went seven shutout innings as the Saltdogs salvaged the final game of the series versus their division rival. Nick Shumpert led the Saltdogs with three hits and Tanner O'Tremba homered. The Saltdogs will be without Jake Hjelle for at least a week as he was put on the injured list. But the real story was the sixth inning. I attended a Northwoods League game tonight, but the situation that sounds like it'd be straight out of the Northwoods League occurred in the sixth inning.  According to the account on the  Explorers post game show with Steve Montgomery,  a bat boy when asked, did his best Judy from Leave it to Beaver impression (my analogy, not his), informing the umpire that the Explorers were colorfully discussing the job home plate Caleb Dye was doing. Dye was going to kick out Braulio Vasquez who doesn't speak English but settled on Jarod Wright, Tuesday night's starting pitcher who was nowhere near where the bat boy was situated. 



Going by Montgomery's account, if we are going to kick out players, and innocent ones for that matter, for second hand accounts of disagreeing with the umpires, what is it going to come down to? Are we going to put microphones in the dugouts where umpires will be able to listen to everything the players are saying in the dugout? Every game, you could throw out a handful of players who make a comment about the job the umpires are doing. I umpired, I'm sure I was called all kinds of names in the dugout, probably deserved at times. The fans in Haymarket Park did not come out to the game tonight to watch a player and manager get thrown out of a game. I hope this was a learning experience for Dye. In reading up on him I found that he was in the Marines (all my respect on that), and after having a hard time finding games to umpire, he got a job in construction before giving umpiring a second chance and going to the Wendelstedt School of Umpiring. It's a story that falls in line with what Indpenedent Baseball is about, a second chance league.

Story on Dye by the Tullahoma News

Thursday Night American Association Studio Audiences

Sioux Falls 3758 (42 Babe Ruth baseball teams and SDSU Football team)

Lincoln 2554

Chicago 6197 

Milwaukee 1351






























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